Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
In a major boost to affordable housing, the budget allocation for the PM Awaas Yojana was increased by 66 percent in the union budget presented on February 1, 2023. Image Source: IANS
2.85 Crore homes have been approved by the States/UTs for the beneficiaries of these, while the construction of 2.22 crore homes has already been finished as of March 24, 2023.
The Ministry of Rural Development is executing the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) with effect from April 1, 2016 to offer support for the construction of 2.95 crore pucca dwellings with basic facilities in order to meet the aim of "Housing for All" in rural areas. The Ministry has given the States/UTs a target of 2.94 crore houses instead of the 2.95 crore houses that were required to be built under PMAY-G. 2.85 Crore homes have been approved by the States/UTs for the beneficiaries of these, while the construction of 2.22 crore homes has already been finished as of March 24, 2023.
In a major boost to affordable housing, the budget allocation for the PM Awaas Yojana was increased by 66 percent in the union budget presented on February 1, 2023. The Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF), which will be utilised to build urban infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, was also unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. PMAY was allocated over Rs 79,000 crore this fiscal as compared to last year’s Rs 48,000 crore. Data released by the government shows that the PMAY has been able to empower people across different states. Women have benefitted a lot from the PMAY-G (Gramin/ Rural).
According to the data released by the government, Over 69 percent of houses constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) are either wholly or jointly owned by women in rural areas. A senior official in the Ministry of Women and Child Development in an interview with The Hindu said that it had been the government’s endeavor to ensure women get a fair share of government schemes under the 'Nari Shakti initiative.' He further said that, "The idea behind the initiative is to have 'women-led' development instead of 'development of women.' By providing houses under the PMAY–G, the government has fulfilled the aspirations of women of owning a pucca house and strengthened their participation in the financial decision making of the household."
PMAY-G aims at providing a pucca house, with basic amenities, to all houseless householder and those households living in kutcha and dilapidated house, by 2022. The immediate goal was to reach 1 crore households in three years, from 2016–17 to 2018–19, that reside in kutcha houses or decaying homes. The minimum size of the home had been raised from 20 square meters to 25 square meters, and it also includes a clean kitchen area. In plain areas, the unit support was increased from Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 1.20 lakh, and in hilly states, difficult areas, and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts, it was increased from Rs. 75,000 to Rs. 1.30 lakh. The beneficiary is entitled to 90.95 person day of unskilled labor from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The scheme has been extended by the Ministry of Rural Development till March 2024.
Source: Ministry of Rural Development
None of the states or union territories have achieved the target under the PMAY-G. Talking about the large states, Bihar has implemented the scheme very well as out of the total 37,03,934 houses sanctioned under the scheme, the construction of 35,18,034 houses has been completed as of March 24, 2023. Madhya Pradesh has also performed very well as out of the total 37,58,218 houses under the PMAY-G, 33,23,106 houses have been built till March 24, 2023. Jharkhand has been also performing very well as the construction of 14,70,091 houses has been completed out of the total sanctioned strength of 15,92,824. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have also performed well. In Rajasthan, 16,02,365 houses have been fully constructed out of the total sanctioned strength of 17,20,379.
Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa and Andhra Pradesh are the poorest performing states. Talking about Goa, out of the sanctioned strength of 257, only 143 houses have been constructed while in the case of Andhra Pradesh, only 48,857 houses have been constructed against the sanctioned 2,46,425 houses.
Delay in release of Central & State Share from State Treasury to State Nodal Account of PMAY-G, cases of unwillingness of beneficiaries to complete the construction, migration, disputed succession of deceased beneficiaries, delay in allotment of land to landless beneficiaries by the States/UTs and at times those occurring on account of General/Assembly/Panchayat elections, unavailability of building materials etc. are the reasons behind the delay in achievement of targets under the scheme. Though the necessary steps are taken by the government, the progress under the PMAY-G is being made at a slow pace. The Central government and the state governments need to work hand-in-hand with a spirit of cooperative federalism irrespective of political differences and focus on implementation of the scheme at the grassroots levels as housing is a basic necessity for survival.
